6970 Normal?

Hi,

Well recently I have started to game with this computer, but have been having issues. I am able to play most games, but some games like Dirt 2 will crash after 15 minutes of gameplay. Also some other games will just decide to crash and these crashes are not because of the game, the only game that crashes because of the game is Dirt 2. Every other game that I crash in, it is a driver crash. Windows says the driver has recovered from a crash and then the game exits.

Now I have never used a ATI card before and have previously ONLY used nVidia GPU's before and for a good reason. With the other nVidia cards I had, both mobile and desktop version, the drivers have always been top notch and never had these kind of issues, never.. I have the latest drivers and Direct X updates for this computer...have no clue why it is doing this. It only seems to be doing this in graphically intense games, almost like it is overheating. Although I do not think it is overheating, because the stupid thing is running at a solid 70 C.

My question is, is this normal for ATI cards, or do you think there is something wrong with this card? I have the 6970m in the M17x R3 with 11.5 and this also happened with the older drivers.. If this is the norm for ATI cards, then I will definitely be shelling out for the 580m.

 

I've been experiencing a similar issue, but mostly when I'm playing a game while I have a browser with Flash open. Be sure you have updated to the latest Alienware OSD application. I'm still in the middle of testing, but it may have corrected my ATI driver crashing issue.

Drivers and Downloads

 

When you say it also happened witht he older drivers, do you mean the default Dell ones? I would suggest trying those drivers again, with a proper clean install (using driver sweeper and stuff), then see if things improve.

I never have crashes with my 6970... Plenty of other annoyances, but no crashes.

 

Default Dell drivers would crash for me as well, even after a driver sweeper clean install. Seems the OSD may have corrected it, here's hoping.

 

Darn my OSD application is installed.

Yes, this happened with Dell's. Then I installed the ATI normal latest drivers and it seems to do it worse.

I will try to do a clean install, but it is not so simple like nVidia clean installs.

 

The same thing only happens to me when I overclock my card too high. If I go higher than 840/1220 and run a game or furmark it crashes exactly like that. If it still crashes after a clean install, I think you may have a defective card.

 

dayum, that one crazy oc for everyday gaming.

 

Well, yeah maybe if the card is faulty or it keeps giving you trouble you can get a 6990 for free.

 

If that was directed at me, this is not an overclock I do often. Actually I only overclock while benchmarking. I don't even need to for any games... yet.

 

Bah.

I CLEAN reinstalled all the GPU drivers and installed the stock Dell ones this time.

Still no dice...driver crashes in BC2, Just Cause 2 and many more still. And no I don't overclock like the post above me and never had on this card.

Last thing to try is reinstalling Direct X. If that doesn't work, then I am going to return this laptop tomorrow and reorder with a Nvidia card. Bad thing is that I lose all my discounts and the cost of Nvidia is so high.

 

If you want to move away AMD GPUs you can, but to me it just looks like you received a defective card. This doesn't mean it couldn't happen with an NVIDIA card. I think you should just get a similar replacement with a 6970M or a 6990M or just have them replace the card. I'm only suggesting this because you said the cost of the NVIDIA is bothering you.

 

Returned...........last day that I would be able to return it they said too!

Now have to decide between 120hz+580m or 6990m. Because I hear that 120hz screen is amazing compared to the others.

 

After telling us how bad ATI cards and drivers are, why would you consider a 6990M?

 

Because it supposedly has 10% better performance over the 580m from what I hear and it is $300 cheaper!

Don't know though.......